I recently went to Seattle for a joint bachelor/bachelorette party. It was actually my first time in Seattle. My parents took us to Portland and Vancouver as a kid and I guess we skipped over Seattle. I'm even surprised I've never been. I always hear how rainy the weather is in Seattle, but we must've lucked out cause the weather was beautiful! Sunny and cool, which was a nice change from the sweltering heat we were having in socal.

The bf and I arrived a day before everyone else so that we could hike and explore outside of Seattle. We hiked to Rattlesnake Ledge, which had such an amazing view! (Pro Tip: don't assume it's an easy peasy hike and wear Converses. I learned the hard way) We also went to Snoqualmie Falls, which was probably the quickest visit to a waterfall ever. "Cool! Waterfall! Ok, lets go." Don't get me wrong. I like these things, but after waking up at 5am to catch our flight and driving an hour to go hike 4 miles in wrong shoes, all I wanted to do was check into our Airbnb and let my poor feet rest. That's also why I have no pictures of the falls.

If you're planning to take a trip to Seattle and want an idea of what to eat and do, here's my little travel guide.​

Rattlesnake Ledge: The hike isn't that hard, but there is a bit of an incline. It's 4 miles round trip and so worth it!​

Totokaelo: This store has a great selection of clothing and beautiful home decor pieces. It reminds me of the stores in NYC. Right around the corner is also Molly Moon's Ice Cream!​

The London Plane: This place was just adorable! It's a cafe, grocery/bakery, and flower shop all in one! My kinda store! We stopped in for a snack and only tried their cheese board, which was delicious!

Other places to eat at that are not pictured

The Pink Door: I love a place that has live music during dinner. It's so entertaining and fun. Be sure to make reservations though. For even more fun, they have a dinner and trapeze show on Sundays and Mondays and a cabaret and burlesque show on Saturdays.

Beecher's Handmade Cheese: I LOVE CHEESE. I like to think I'm a pretty healthy eater but I could never be vegan and give up CHEESE. Just. Too. Good. All kinds! Check out the mac n cheese here if you're into cheesy goodness.

Pike Place Chowder: If you're unsure of which chowder to try, I recommend getting the sampler where you get to choose 4. I can't even say which one's my favorite cause they're all good!

Piroshky Piroshky: I hear a lot of ppl rave about this place and in my opinion, it was alright. I had the smoked salmon pate and the beef and cheese. I definitely prefer the beef and cheese. Eat it while it's fresh and hot!

Ba Bar: This place serves Vietnamese street food, which was pretty good. They don't take reservations but our group of 21 was seated within 10 minutes. Their cocktails were also really good.

Storyville Coffee: I love looking for local coffee shops to try when I travel and this place makes a good cup of jo. The Pike's Place location was fairly big with several couches and tables to hang out at.

​Hope this helps and feel free to share any must try places in Seattle :)

My mom's 60th birthday recently passed and we celebrated by throwing her a surprise brunch at Orchard City Kitchen. I have to say, the staff was extremely nice and helpful. Alcohol was not part of our pre selected menu, but they gave us mimosas while setting up, which was nice of them. Everything came together nicely. I was in charge of the dessert table. We ordered the cake and desserts from Caketerest, which were so good!

For the decor, I made the happy birthday banner with card stock and bought letter stickers. I'm all about trying to DIY rather than pay a lot for it. I bought some card stock paper and printed out the dessert labels and cut a slit in some corks as holders. The cake topper banner was a first. I used canvas and letter stickers and was soo worried it wouldn't hold up on the cake but it did! The 60 was cut out from gold glitter card stock. Making decor yourself saves money, but some things are worth buying to save yourself from sitting on your floor, tracing and cutting for hours. The gold banner was bought from Paper Source and so glad I bought it.

I'll be posting a DIY for a similar banner soon and I'm actually considering selling the cake topper. Just need to think of a Etsy store name. ​